The film takes place in Vegas, where gambling is king. It is a story of how the mafia made and lost millions, and of how giant gambling corporations took over a desert town. It is also a tale of how the mob fell from grace and eventually disappeared from Las Vegas.
Casino is director Martin Scorsese dialing Goodfellas up to 11. It has a back-and-forth narration from gangster Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and his mobster friend from back home Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), and it is loaded with the requisite avarice, violence, treachery, and scumbaggery that define the movie genre.
The gambling environment is carefully designed to influence visitors’ behavior. It creates intimate spaces that feel like home and are filled with enticing slot machines. In addition, casinos pump euphoric scents throughout their ventilation systems to keep customers comfortable and happy as they gamble. This manufactured blissful experience keeps people playing longer. Moreover, slot machines are programmed to use near-misses to keep players engaged.
Despite these psychological tricks, there is one thing that everyone knows about gambling—it’s not fair. The odds are always against the player. The house has built-in advantages that ensure it, and not the customers, will win in the long run. Those are called the house edge. Even the games that involve skill like blackjack and video poker have an expected value that is uniformly negative. In other words, the more you play, the more you lose.